A structural analysis of collaboration between European research institutes

Collaboration in science has been the subject of many studies. In this study we focus on the influence of the research profile of an institute on its collaborative behaviour and pattern. The classification model developed by the authors provides a helpful tool to identify the specialisms of a research institution and to create groups of similar institutions that enable study of the relationship between science fields and collaborative behaviour. First we show the effect of research profile on the shares of different types of collaboration. Next, citation indicators are used to investigate the changes on impact and publication strategy over the different types of collaboration. Finally we try to find for each group the research profile of the most preferred partners. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.